Notebook, The
by
Sparks, Nicholas





Description:
An elderly man reads a story from a notebook to a woman who
does not know him; the story is of young lovers kept apart
by disapproving parents.
In 1932, Allie Nelson meets visitor Noah Calhoun in New
Bern, and since her mother thinks Noah is from the slums she
hides his letters, but 14 years later they meet again, and
although Allie is engaged story that Noah retells Allie when he is 80 and she has
Alzheimer's.
Review:
Booklist Review: With a huge first printing and a major
advertising campaign, Warner is clearly hoping that Sparks'
first novel will duplicate the success of Robert James
Waller's Bridges of Madison County. Written in the opaque
language of a fable, the novel opens in a nursing home as
80-year-old Noah Calhoun, "a common man with common
thoughts," reads a love story from a notebook; it is his own
story. In 1946, Noah, newly returned from the war, is trying
to forget a long-ago summer romance with Allie Nelson, the
daughter of a powerful businessman. Allie, soon to be
married, feels compelled to track Noah down. One
steamed-crab dinner and a canoe ride later, they fall madly
in love again. We then learn that Noah, now aged and infirm,
is reading his notebook to Allie in an attempt to jog her
memory, severely impaired by Alzheimer's disease, and,
miraculously, he succeeds, much to the amazement of the
hospital staff. There is something suspect about a romantic
relationship that reaches its acme when one of the partners
is in the throes of dementia, but then, this is well within
the confines of the romance genre--love conquers all, even
Alzheimer's, leaving the medical experts (and this reviewer)
confounded. If you want to read a novel in which the romance
is grounded in something real, and the magic is truly
magical, read the work of Alice Hoffman. If you want to read
an upscale Harlequin romance with great crossover appeal,
then read The Notebook. ((Reviewed Aug. 1996)) -- Joanne
Wilkinson
Publishers Weekly Review: In 1932, two North Carolina
teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love.
Spending one idyllic summer together in the small town of
New Bern, Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson do not meet again
for 14 years. Noah has returned from WWII to restore the
house of his dreams, having inherited a large sum of money.
Allie, programmed by family and the "caste system of the
South" to marry an ambitious, prosperous man, has become
engaged to powerful attorney Lon Hammond. When she reads a
newspaper story about Noah's restoration project, she shows
up on his porch step, re-entering his life for two days.
Will Allie leave Lon for Noah? The book's slim dimensions
and cliche-ridden prose will make comparisons to The Bridges
of Madison County inevitable. What renders Sparks's (Wokini:
A Lakota Journey of Happiness and Self-Understanding)
sentimental story somewhat distinctive are two chapters,
which take place in a nursing home in the '90s, that frame
the central story. The first sets the stage for the reading
of the eponymous notebook, while the later one takes the
characters into the land beyond happily ever after, a future
rarely examined in books of this nature. Early on, Noah
claims that theirs may be either a tragedy or a love story,
depending on the perspective. Ultimately, the judgment is up
to readers--be they cynics or romantics. For the latter,
this will be a weeper. Major ad/promo; first serial to Good
Housekeeping; movie rights to New Line Cinema; Warner Audio;
Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections.
(Oct.)
Library Journal Review: Here is a first novel that many
people are banking on: the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book
Club are featuring it as a main selection and film, foreign,
and serial rights are already sold. At 80, Noah Calhoun
reads daily from a notebook containing the love story of
Noah and Allie. We learn of the teenaged lovers, their
14-year separation and reunion in New Bern, North Carolina,
just weeks before Allie is to marry another man. Back in the
present, we learn that Noah and Allie did marry and were
happy for more than 40 years. Now, they are residents of a
nursing home, separated both by rooms and, more profoundly,
by Allie's Alzheimer's. Noah's daily reading from the
notebook is not to himself; he reads aloud to Allie, hoping
that the power of their love story will reach her. Noah's
coping mechanisms as an old man are exceptional, and the
novel's format, focusing just on the dual beginnings of
their love story and its denouement, is intriguing. This is
a more romantic testament to love's enduring miracle than
Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County (LJ
3/1/92) because the Calhouns chose the rigors of daily
domestic life over a dream of four days.